USERMOD

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

Theusermod
command modifies the system account files to reflect the changes that are specified on the command line.

OPTIONS

The options which apply to theusermod
command are:

-a, –append

Add the user to the supplementary group(s). Use only with the-G
option.

-c, –commentCOMMENT

The new value of the user’s password file comment field. It is normally modified using thechfn(1)
utility.

-d, –homeHOME_DIR

The user’s new login directory.

If the-m
option is given, the contents of the current home directory will be moved to the new home directory, which is created if it does not already exist.

-e, –expiredateEXPIRE_DATE

The date on which the user account will be disabled. The date is specified in the formatYYYY-MM-DD.

-f, –inactiveINACTIVE

The number of days after a password expires until the account is permanently disabled.

A value of 0 disables the account as soon as the password has expired, and a value of -1 disables the feature.

-g, –gidGROUP

The group name or number of the user’s new initial login group. The group must exist.

-G, –groupsGROUP1[,GROUP2,…[,GROUPN]]]

A list of supplementary groups which the user is also a member of. Each group is separated from the next by a comma, with no intervening whitespace. The groups are subject to the same restrictions as the group given with the-g
option.

If the user is currently a member of a group which is not listed, the user will be removed from the group. This behaviour can be changed via the-a
option, which appends the user to the current supplementary group list.

-l, –loginNEW_LOGIN

The name of the user will be changed fromLOGIN
toNEW_LOGIN. Nothing else is changed. In particular, the user’s home directory name should probably be changed manually to reflect the new login name.

-L, –lock

Lock a user’s password. This puts a ‘!’ in front of the encrypted password, effectively disabling the password. You can’t use this option with-p
or-U.

Note: if you wish to lock the account (not only access with a password), you should also set theEXPIRE_DATE
to1.

-m, –move-home

Move the content of the user’s home directory to the new location.

This option is only valid in combination with the-d
(or–home) option.

-o, –non-unique

When used with the-u
option, this option allows to change the user ID to a non-unique value.

Note:
This option is not recommended because the password (or encrypted password) will be visible by users listing the processes.

You should make sure the password respects the system’s password policy.

-s, –shellSHELL

The name of the user’s new login shell. Setting this field to blank causes the system to select the default login shell.

-u, –uidUID

The new numerical value of the user’s ID.

This value must be unique, unless the-o
option is used. The value must be non-negative. Values between 0 and 999 are typically reserved for system accounts.

The user’s mailbox, and any files which the user owns and which are located in the user’s home directory will have the file user ID changed automatically.

The ownership of files outside of the user’s home directory must be fixed manually.

-U, –unlock

Unlock a user’s password. This removes the ‘!’ in front of the encrypted password. You can’t use this option with-p
or-L.

Note: if you wish to unlock the account (not only access with a password), you should also set theEXPIRE_DATE
(for example to99999, or to theEXPIRE
value from
/etc/default/useradd).

-Z, –selinux-userSEUSER

The SELinux user for the user’s login. The default is to leave this field the blank, which causes the system to select the default SELinux user.

CAVEATS

You must make certain that the named user is not executing any processes when this command is being executed if the user’s numerical user ID, the user’s name, or the user’s home directory is being changed.usermod
checks this on Linux, but only check if the user is logged in according to utmp on other architectures.

You must change the owner of anycrontab
files orat
jobs manually.

You must make any changes involving NIS on the NIS server.

CONFIGURATION

The following configuration variables in
/etc/login.defs
change the behavior of this tool:

MAIL_DIR (string)

The mail spool directory. This is needed to manipulate the mailbox when its corresponding user account is modified or deleted. If not specified, a compile-time default is used.

MAIL_FILE (string)

Defines the location of the users mail spool files relatively to their home directory.

TheMAIL_DIR
andMAIL_FILE
variables are used byuseradd,usermod, anduserdel
to create, move, or delete the user’s mail spool.

IfMAIL_CHECK_ENAB
is set toyes, they are also used to define theMAIL
environment variable.

MAX_MEMBERS_PER_GROUP (number)

Maximum members per group entry. When the maximum is reached, a new group entry (line) is started in
/etc/group
(with the same name, same password, and same GID).

The default value is 0, meaning that there are no limits in the number of members in a group.

This feature (split group) permits to limit the length of lines in the group file. This is useful to make sure that lines for NIS groups are not larger than 1024 characters.

If you need to enforce such limit, you can use 25.

Note: split groups may not be supported by all tools (even in the Shadow toolsuite). You should not use this variable unless you really need it.